They work tirelessly all day under the harsh rays of a blazing sun, the stench of death and destruction around them. They are a team of Jewish heroes who are working around the clock with one mission: the recovery of human bodies.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

There’s a popular weekly satirical show in Israel called Eretz Nehederet. In a recent episode, an actor playing Benny Gantz, the former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and newcomer to Israeli politics, is asked how he’s feeling.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

(JTA) Norwegian rapper not charged with hate speech
A Norwegian rapper who cursed Jews while performing at an event in Oslo promoting multiculturalism will not be charged with hate speech, because his words may have been criticism of Israel, prosecutors said.

Did Israeli soldiers violate international law by deliberately targeting unarmed children, journalists, health workers, and people with disabilities during the past year of violence along the Israel-Gaza border?

(JTA) After the New England Patriots beat the favoured Kansas City Chiefs to reach their third straight Super Bowl – their amazing ninth in less than 20 years – CBS sports analyst Boomer Esiason made an intriguing statement, namely that Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

We are winging our way towards Human Rights Day (21 March), the first public holiday of the year, which coincides with Purim. I can’t help but wonder about our concept of human rights and what it means, not least of all, to our government.

President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed in parliament last week that South Africa intended to downgrade its diplomatic presence in Israel. The foreign affairs bureaucracy was working “feverishly” on the matter. “The decision to downgrade the embassy in Israel is informed precisely by the violation of the rights of Palestinians and we are therefore putting pressure on Israel. But at the same time, we are saying we are willing to play a role and ensure there is peace,” said Ramaphosa.

Undeterred, and in spite of the hate-filled disparagement that spewed forth when Shashi Naidoo uttered positive comments about Israel and Jews last year, Haafizah Bhamjee penned a reasoned and sensible article on Israel and the Palestinians in the SA Jewish Report of 22 February.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

One of the questions that haunts the story of Purim and moves silently through the lines of the Megillah is clear and chillingly simple: How could Jews have chosen to remain in Persian Shushan? It was so clearly an environment in which anti-Semitism was so prevalent that a genocide could be planned and almost implemented without comment by broader society.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Mike Berger - Solar Plexus

Retired professor Mike Berger lives in Cape Town and publishes a popular blog called SOLAR PLEXUS – and sub-titled “A Site devoted to Israel and the Clash of Civilizations” which, says Mike, “is committed to the survival and safety of Israel in whatever form it and its citizens decide freely for themselves. Our hope is that in time Israel can become more fully a democracy in which all its diverse population feel safe and welcome, free to exercise their chosen way of life with due respect for the rights and dignity of others.” Berger recently published a seminal study on THE CAPE TIMES’ BIAS AGAINST ISRAEL.

Of universities and other things...

by
Jewish Report
| Oct 04, 2016

Blogger Mike Berger, who also blogs on Times of Israel and is widely published in SA, had the headline Opinion piece on the well-read Politicsweb.co.za this morning. Berger says Max Price & Co. have bought into the Pandora's box of grievances, only to find that these are infinite

Things fall apart: Time for the centre to hold

Blogger Mike Berger, who also blogs on Times of Israel and is widely published in SA, had the headline Opinion piece on the well-read Politicsweb.co.za this morning. Mike Berger says Max Price & Co. have bought into the Pandora's box of grievances, only to find that these are infinite

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity..." (WB Yeats)

No, the biggest problem facing South African Universities is not decolonisation - or transformation or racism or sexism or genderism - or even University "arrogance".

Left: Mike Berger
The key existential challenge confronting our Universities and the country as a whole is holding the centre. It is maintaining the norms, processes and institutions which make possible the realisation of the dream of the struggle veterans that one day South Africa, under a fully democratic government, will be capable of delivering the social and economic goals of the majority of our population.

It is the simple question "who rules? The mob, the latest warlord or the democratic State, under the rule of law as implemented by its appointed officials and its institutions?

Most South Africans who have managed to remain relatively uncontaminated by the flood of fashionable ideologies understand that. Yes, within their ranks there are some stupid or repellent racists. Yes, there are degree of arrogance and complacency amongst many whites. But the majority, possibly the vast majority, are open to the new demands and challenges entailed by a full, non-racial democracy which was the foundation on which the new South Africa was founded.

But Dr Price and many of our commenteriat have lost the plot entirely. They have bought into the Pandora's box of grievances and demands of the demagogues and, to their astonishment and horror, they find that it is infinite. They cannot keep up with the populist meme-machine which spews out new issues always one step ahead of their confused reactions.

This challenge is not peculiar to South Africa or to Africa; it is universal: how to regulate productively the restless, tribal nature of the human species in such a way to deliver the fruits of cooperation. How to beat the logic of the Prisoner's Dilemma in order to derive the greatest good for the greatest number

Yeats, a poet, not a political theorist, understood that intuitively. The lines opening this article were written in 1919 following the devastation wreaked on Europe by the "war to end all wars". Yeats was a part of the "Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Ireland since at least the end of the 17th century". In short, he was part of ruling class who established the norms and the institutions which regulated Irish society for at least 100 years.

Europe itself at the time consisted of separate states at different stages of political development with disputed borders, different histories and cultures, all compounded by the devastation caused by WW1 and the sharp economic downturn of the late 1920s. Not surprisingly, it became an incubator for radical and totalitarian ideologies which set the stage for the next devastating global conflict, WW2.

But the major totalitarian ideologies of the early-mid 20th century were defeated and out of the cauldron emerged a pluralistic, universalist, free-market, human right-based democratic order which was so successful that it appeared to some to be the only game in town.

It delivered huge advantages. Innovation, health and wealth increased exponentially. The domain of security and cooperation widened dramatically making humanity the most social of all species, surpassing even the special case of the social insects according to Peter Turchin. The earth became flatter and smaller and the Western model of democracy seemed king amongst pygmies. A democratic peace reigned over Western Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain and its erstwhile colonies, including the USA.

But no sooner had optimism become reasonably acceptable, ominous clouds appeared over the horizon. They came in various shapes and sizes. Climate change and the general havoc caused by irresponsible industrialisation and over-population soon assumed truly frightening dimensions.

And there were many others: Jihadism, tyrannical and failed states, pockets of dire poverty even in some relatively wealthy countries, greedy, corrupt and incompetent governance, resource depletion, great power rivalry...and so on. The consequences have been drastic. Armed conflicts costing millions of lives lost or blighted, and threatening the stability of the rest of the world.

Even more worrying is the sight of stable, confident democracies reeling under the onslaught of external challenge coupled with serious weaknesses inherent in large-scale democratic societies. The source and nature of these fault-lines are still not understood by what I call, with malicious intent, "the chattering classes", but we need to consider them seriously

I will consider three major, interlocked factors: the media, the innate tribalism of the human species along with a vast repertoire of emotional-cognitive biases.

Modern communications technology (which we'll call "the media") has fundamentally changed our world in ways which we are a long way from fully understanding. One obvious effect is to covert the world into a facsimile of a global village; "facsimile", rather than the real thing, because we don't share common fates, cultures or histories. And "facsimile" also because all the raw information, good and bad, has been processed by a host of other minds with their own perceptions, biases, constraints and agendas.

Thus the information we get is not even second- or third-hand and, more often than not, has been deliberately and cleverly shaped to control our perceptions and opinions. Given the fact that all humans are especially attentive to threat, conflict and bad news, this constitutes the bulk of what the media conveys.

We do not yet fully understand the impact this has on our psyches but it is reasonable to infer that a constant stream of bad news and conflict increases the collective stress and anxiety levels even of distant populations and promotes polarisation and "tribalism" within society.

For example, the generally safe and secure United States of America is manifesting record degrees of polarisation between fluctuating alliances along ethnic, gender or ideological lines which spills over into actual physical confrontation in the form of riots and violent protests - or deliberate murders. Mostly it takes the form of ideological mobbing as we have seen in the latest election.

I hold no brief for Trump, who as an ultra-predator cannot complain when he becomes the prey, but the behaviour of the mainstream media has been a travesty of ethical journalism.

Such internecine tribalism makes it difficult for the USA, and the West more broadly, to respond rationally and coherently to external challenges, such as Islamism and regional anarchy with the attendant mass flight of resident populations - along with embedded warriors - into the West. This process remains to be played out and the next 100 years will be "interesting". The same applies to other existential challenges as the global climate and environmental changes.

If even stable democracies are shaken by these human and technological realities, the same applies in spades to precarious developing (aspiring?) democracies like South Africa. Tribalism here has deep roots. Our democracy is new and our surrounding models are bad. Nor is our own history much help. The mythology of violent protest as the essential ingredient to political liberation and power is now becoming increasingly written into our cultural DNA.

On top of that we are the receptacle for the most radical (and often impracticable) ideas of the ever-inventive Western Left. In our fragile context with our immense population bulge of unskilled, angry youth, such slogans are the petrol on the bonfire. Even more disturbing is the facile surrender of much of the South African intellectual centre to the same narratives of the Western Left agitating the fantasies of the youth. As a consequence, our Universities and "chattering classes" have virtually handed moral authority and even temporal power to mob rule.

No help can be expected from our government which is in an even worse state of moral and operational disintegration. Institutions other than government-based entities are holding up quite well and the broad population has remained relatively resistant to the lures of violent demagoguery. But it is highly precarious.

It is now time for the Universities to enforce, by whatever legal means necessary, the rule of law and the norms of tertiary educational institutions worth the name. It is not only the future of higher education at stake, important though that is. It is the stability of the country. The kind of violent mob politics we are seeing, is the classic excuse for draconian and anti-democratic measures by illegitimate and weak governments.

Before we become trapped between a Mugabe-like dictatorship or the African version of the Arab Spring, can we please have our Universities show the clarity and leadership that we expect from those placed in positions of power.